Research methods - A2 Flashcards
What is a case study
A case study is an experiment which studies only one person or a small group of people in depth and offers detailed analysis of often a unique circumstance.
What are some example of case studies
- Little Albert - Watson and Rayner (Conditioning phobias)
- Little Hans - Freud (Psychodynamic approach - Oedipus complex)
- KF - Shallice and Warrington (Memory - STM)
What data do case studies collect and why might this be good but what might be bad about this
Qualitative data - non-numerical data
Strength:
Rich in-depth data,personal,valid,idiographic
Weakness:
Data is more subjective and not empirical or scientific, more difficult to generalise findings
How might the researcher study someone in a case study
- Interviews
- Observations
- Questionnaires
What are strengths of a case study
- Qualitative method: Rich in-depth data, personal, valid, idiographic
- Can investigate rare human behaviours which to experimentally would be unethical
- The interaction of different factors can be studied (co-variables)
What are weaknesses of a case study
- Difficult to generalise / extrapolate to other people , lacking reliability
- Retrospective information and past history can sometimes be unreliable
- Ethical implications of confidentiality, as often cases are very rare and so easy to identify even if names are not used
What is content analysis
A research technique that enables the indirect study of behaviour by examining communications that people produce - e.g texts, emails, films and other media
What are the 5 steps of coding analysis
Data is collected
Researcher reads through or examines the data, making themselves familiar with it
The researcher identifies coding units
The data is analysed by applying the coding units
A tally is made of the number of times that a coding unit
What is thematic analysis
An inductive and qualitative approach to analysis that involves identifying implicit or explicit ideas within the dat. Themes will often emerge once the data has been coded
The differences between coding vs thematic analysis
Coding :
- Quantitative data
- Coding units
Thematic :
- Qualitative data
- More meaningful in-depth themes and descriptions
What are strengths of content analysis
- Helps to avoid ethical issues associated with psychological research - material they want to study is often already within the public domain - no issue with obtaining permission
- Communication of a more sensitive nature such as text messages still benefit from having high external validity
- Content analysis is flexible in the sense that it may produce qualitative and quantitative data depending on the aims of the research
What is a weakness of content analysis
- People tend to be studied indirectly as part of the content analysis so the communication they produce is usually analysed outside of the context within which it occured
- There is a danger (like case studies) that the researcher may attribute opinions and motivations to the speaker or writer that were not intended originally
- Lack of objectivity
What is reliability
When research can be replicated and provide the same results (the data is consistent)
At what number do we consider something to be reliable
0.8 >
What does intra and inter mean
Intra - internal (within itself)
Inter - external (between others)
What inter-oberver reliability
The extent to which there is an agreement between two or more observers involved in observations of a behaviour
What is inter-rater reliabilty
When the same test or diagnosis is conducted by different people and gets consistently similar or the same results
What is the main way of assessing reliability
Test - retest:
Administering the same test with the same people but on a different occasssion
Needs to be enough time in between original test and repeat that participants do not recall original answers but not enough time that attitudes or opinions may have changed
How may researchers assess inter-observer reliability
By using a pilot study of the observation observers can check they are applying behaviour categories in the same way
In what 4 ways could a researcher improve reliability in questionnaires, interviews, experiments and observations
- Questionnaires : The reliability of questionnaires over time should be measured using the test-retest method
A questionnaire that produces low test-retest reliability may require some of the items to be deselected or rewritten due to the questions potentially being to complex or ambiguos
They may as a result switch to closed, fix choice questions - Interviews: Consistenly use the same interviewer - if the interviewer is not consistently available make sure all interviewers are trained
Might choose to use structured interviews where the interviewers behaviour is more controlled
Experiments: Control most often seen in lab experiments is the most reliable
Observations: The reliability of observations can be improved by making sure that the behavioural categories have been properly operationalised and that they are measurable and self-evident
Categories should not overlap and all possible behaviours should be covered on the checklist.
What are the 4 types of validity
Internal
Ecological
Temporal
Face
What is validity
The extent to which an observed effect is genuine (how accurate is the data)
What is internal validity
Are the effects observed in an experiment due to the manipualtion of the independent variable and not some other factor (extraneous variables)
What is ecological validity
The extent to which findings from a research study can be generalised to other settings and situations (form of external validity)
